It is a bad payment system. You cannot expect journalists to both be paid by advertising and be guardians of the truth. It would be like expecting the police force to fund themselves from charitable donations. It creates an unsustainable conflict of interest.

Investigative reporting is likely just as expensive as crime investigation. So there needs to be a corps of 'sworn investigative reporters' who are paid for out of taxes - but are appointed directly by a vote system and not appointed (directly or indirectly) by government/business - whose power they are expected to counterbalance.

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